Witnesses must remember, communicate details about suspects

Each year about 15 million Americans fall victim to crime. At some point in your life, you may be asked to describe someone or look at the sketch of a criminal and try to make a positive identification.

We conducted a WLWT experiment using Specialist Jane Noel, a 20-year veteran of the Cincinnati Police Department. Noel and I begin by looking through some of her work. Jane gets excited as she sees sketches of criminals who have been convicted.

I point to one sketch and ask, "This guy's behind bars?" Noel says, "Yes!"

We look at another one Noel considers to be very special to her. "As I was working on this drawing, one of the guys from our fraud department came through our office and said, 'Hey, that looks like so-and-so. Sure enough, the victim picked it out of a photo lineup. Right away, picked him out right away."

Noel is perceptive, precise and passionate. "I love doing this and if it leads to the arrest of somebody, then I get paid to do something I enjoy and it has a good outcome," Noel said.

So, WLWT News 5 decided to try an experiment, to see how the process works - witnessing an event, then working with a sketch artist to create a likeness. WLWT staged an argument, with the help of WLWT news operations manager David Rosch and commercial production manager Darin Cox.

We brought three people into the conference room under the impression that they would be watching a presentation on TV news. Little did they know, they were there for something a bit different.

With four cameras rolling, Rosch began the mock meeting. A few minutes later, Cox walked in briskly and interrupted the seminar. "How long are you going to be in here?" Cox said.

Rosch told him the meeting would probably last 15 minutes, and the two began to argue as the women looked on.

The fake fight went on for about a minute. The fake altercation ended, and Mike walked in to explain what was going on. University of Cincinnati student Courtney Danser was chosen to be the witness, and she worked with Noel to create a sketch of Cox.

Noel asks numerous questions as she begins drawing in a process that lasts about four hours.

Our witness flicks through binders of faces as Noel calmly coaches her along.

Danser : "They kind of look like this I think."

Noel: "How about we go to the mouth next? Also, was there anything unusual about his ears?"

Danser: "It's so hard for me to remember now."

Noel: "Close your eyes, go back to that room. You only saw him for a minute."

Time is of the essence as the images begin to lift out of Danser's mind.

Noel: "Go ahead and take the book and turn the pages and see if something comes to mind."

Danser: "The face is a little rounder on the side."

Noel: "If you pick a different neck, it's going to change the appearance and the shading also is changed."

Danser: "I think his chin might not have been as pointy."

Noel: "Did I give him the right shaped nose? Did I give him the right shaped lips?"

Daser: "I think that's starting to look more like him."

Four hours later, Danser is tapped out. No more tweaks, no more changes. After a roller coaster game of recall, the sketch is official.

"He came in for a minute, I saw his face for a minute," Danser said. "Then we got in the room and saw pictures of people's foreheads and noses and mouths. Then I had no idea what kind of mouth this guy had. So I don't know. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, actually."

Overall, Danser provided a pretty accurate description.

She forgot that Cox had facial hair, but Noel said hair and clothing are easy to get rid of, so that's not critical.

Noel asks witnesses to focus on the parts of a face that draws a person in, such as the nose, eyes, a scar or a tattoo.

She said accurately recalling a distinguishing feature is important, but she points out that the sketch is just one of many tools investigators use to make arrests.

Noel also said women tend to make better witnesses than men because they're more detail-oriented, and younger witnesses are usually more helpful than older ones.

If there is more than one witness, sketch artists split up and work with them individually so their recollections aren't altered by another person's descriptions.